Why the Interest

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

2 hours ago, ronwagn said:

All very nice little (aside from Canada), mostly cold countries with very small populations and left wing governments. They all have top down big government systems compared to ours. None of them wield much clout economically or geopolitically. 

We have a Bill of Rights, and a constitution that is actually followed to a great extent.

We are bigger and on top.  We have resisted separation attempts (QC) and remain True North Strong and Free.  The "united states" is a volatile collection of people with differing ideas and very little cohesion.

History will repeat itself; when you have the next civil war liberals will win again because computers, brains, and money beats guns and rednecks. 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

Where are those yellow jackets Tom?  I told you that was garbage.

[SUZNV + 1,197]

I have my third citizenship this year in the US. My attitudes toward the US politics:

-Hostile at the beginning, after many years of history education in VN about US crimes in the war. I even had a September 11 background with the air plain crashed into the building while I was in High school in NZ. But gradually I lost faith in Communism as well when I became top student of economics in high school (maybe comparable with ECON101), but still had progressive point of view. I hadn't really care about NZ politics as I had considered myself a guest until  I had Residency (under Skill Migrant category) . Still influenced  by Vietnamese media,  I liked Bill Clinton, hated Bush, was really angry when John Kelly lost the election, stupid people voted for the wrong one). My Chinese friends liked Bill Clinton too, handsome, smart and Bush is dumb so we had the same affection from our countries' propaganda. 

-Neutral. Didn't really care about NZ politic. But when jobless, I was doing more research about VN war and Sino Vietnam war, in Western documents, Soviet documents, history about Communism in Europe, Russia, China, Vietnam, the war in Iraq, Afghan etc. Finding so much lies in Vietnamese news. The VN propaganda mainstream is always: "Vietnam is poor because of the wars. We had some bad decisions in the past but we are improving. Don't listen to the enemy wants to make VN into chaos. The south Vietnam from oversea is trying to make VN into chaos". Started realizing that why VN GOV is promoting a hateful toward Western democracy in Vietnamese, yet they go to many International  Organization  beg for money because we are poor, because of the Orange Agent, because the global warming make the big cities flooding in rainy seasons(this one is particularly wrong,  it is the stupid city grand design trying to make the cheap swamp land becomes rich districts and thus, water cannot get out .The French didn't develop it for a reason). "If outsiders talked bad about your government, they try to destroy your country. Mind your own business and leave the politicians do the politic". Concluded that 2 languages make you have 2 different views. Whenever there are trouble in any Western countries, they will show "see, democracy couldn't save you" attitude.

-When I got married with a US citizen and waiting for the visa to get to the US (1.5 years). I started doing research about the US, mainly what would I do for a living. How is the career perspective, health care, house price, mortgage... I found out how much the differences.

Originally I thought NZ is not as good as the US, but comparable income and cost of living. Safer. Single payer healthcare. I couldn't be more wrong.

-In NZ, if your parents have a house, or you have a house around 2000. Then you should be okay and enjoy your real estate price increases. If you have no asset and want to buy a house now, the average house price is $700k NZD, the median income is $52,000 NZD (Kiwi don't have joint tax system), the average household income assume to be 100k NZD. The average house price of USA is 200k USD and average household income is 63k USD. It is very rough number and I don't want to go to exchange rates because it has very low effect on the pay raise. The current interest rate for 30 years loan in the US is 3.125%. In NZ you can fix maximum 5 years but the longer the higher so the the current NZ floating rate is 4.4%. Owning a house in NZ will have more risk to lose your house. Petrol in NZ cost double than US. This is national level. If compares Auckland to MN, life in MN is much much more easier, more jobs, with less debt and more saving. I know there are some cost of living comparison websites but I don't think it reflects my experience. 

-Healthcare is a complicated topic. It is not only the price but the specialist available in your area and your how complicate is your particular health problem. Let say if you have common disease, common surgery, then the healthcare cost in NZ is really cheap. But for rare or complicated treatment which requires the best specialist and on time treatment, US is the best. Simply because the compensations for hospital and doctors in the US are too high, so a famous oversea specialist can fly over and do the operation still can earn more than doing the surgery in his country (in my relative experience, the specialist was from Japan). I have an aunt who do cancer surgery in Montreal Canada, and she is almost always busy with the surgery. Some patients who have cancer may have to wait for a few months, simply because don't have enough specialist in that particular problem. So in the US, it simply you can have bankruptcy to save your life or you have money but get into the waiting list and hope that list is short. If you don't have any income, it doesn't cost you anything in both country emergency but in the US, if you are illegal immigrant, you still can get treated for free ( NZ  is free for their resident and citizen only). My wife sister migrated to the US last year  is currently treated Hepatitis B, for free, so I don't have experience about worst case scenario in NZ vs USA. At least we still have doctor appointment in the US, in NZ Auckland city first come first serve is more and more common. If you want a good healthcare statistics for your national pride, it can be very easy arranged. With a rare and complicated case with expensive treatment and high uncertainty , the system can just "too bad, so sad" and save the resources for many "cheaper" cases. No one will complain as your chance is slim anyway.

I have a theory that if you have a passport to fly to the US without visa, you can buy travel insurance with precondition and get into USA for treatment. The travel insurance to get to USA with max 1 million coverage, maximum 5k out of pocket will much more expensive than the non USA.

-In USA, if you are skill professional, you can earn much higher than minimum wage. US minimum wages is 7.25 USD so the minimum income will be 15k USD.  A family doctor's  starting salary is about 180k USD. In NZ the equivalent numbers are 17.7 36k NZD minimum wage and 100k NZD. Jobs are everywhere, I even found my wife's uncle a job with no English or skills for 12USD per hour. It is easy to find entree level job opportunities  even if you have no college degree.  In NZ entry level job opportunities are much harder to find, even with college degrees. My wife with no US college degree earns as much as me, the only different is she works 50 hours. In NZ it will be much much different. I know many NZ enjoy student life and cheap education so much they have multiple college degrees but no careers.

As an Immigrant, I feel much less racist in the US. No one care if you are tourists or immigrants( tourists bring money to your tourism industry, immigrants will compete with you for jobs and houses).

Living in NZ for 17 years, I know where the view about the US came from. Most media just simply replicate from the US mainstream media,  and curious readers will think that they understand about US problems than the US citizens themselves. In VN or China, they constantly do cherry picking to prove that democracy will not be as good as  state controlled . Been there done that. I don't blame them, where else can they have more information with credible sources.  Vice versa, many US citizens don't appreciate how good as a system their Founding Fathers set with distributed powers, freedom of choices and market control, which brought the US to the top.  You are living in a country that your hard works are appreciated. Can just move to less developed state for jobs, insurances, houses...  Would you rather to live in countries or cities where houses are so expensive so you either rent form landlords or  works for the banks, have a higher mortgage with your higher taxes yet lower income?

US mainstreams keep praising  the system where the population is more than double of the US, yet equivalent GDP, depend on US major contribution to the NATO for opposing Russia with 1/5 of their population and 1/10 of their GDP. Yet their Economy is still struggling for taking off and they are rushing for Chinese investment over their sovereignty, despite China's reputation in dictatorship, organ harvesting, non-transparency, human rights and domestically develop a hostile attitude toward Western Democracy. And some of these countries still have some illusion about their historical golden ages and appear to think that their system is the role model of the world, partly maybe because they read too much US mainstream, just like I was before I migrated to the US. Maybe Europe should restructure their political system, less tax, less regulation or political correctness and become a super power.  You can't make the world better place by depend on US for military assistant and China for investment. I keep saying Trump did a good job for Covid19. Or the deaths could be equal to UK+Spain+France+Italy, which total population is still smaller than the US's. First you save yourself, then you save the world.

I don't do writing for the living and English is my second language. But while writing this, I came across a very good analysis aligns with my point of view especially what may make US lose her power, so you may read it instead of my writing.

Quote

The most likely scenario would be internal decay. Some great powers have been brought down but by domestic political divisions and corruption rather than the rise of a rival power. It’s not hard to imagine the United States heading down this path. Partisan divisions have surged to levels not seen since the Civil War, gridlock has become the political norm, and special interests increasingly infect U.S. institutions. 

https://now.tufts.edu/articles/why-united-states-only-superpower

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by SUZNV

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

Stupid people think the conservatives are winning. Very, very wrong. Social-isolation and economic collapse is teaching people how to be self-sufficient and that your job doesn't define you.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

Money is an artificial construct.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

2 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

Cut me some slack!)

PLUS, NO MOTORCYCLE RIDING

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

Trumps presidency will be the near biggest disaster in history. Record levels of debt and deficit, even more than the bank failures - then add a bunch of corpses.

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Force

Waste of money.  trump will never be Picard.

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Enthalpic

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

1 hour ago, Jan van Eck said:

PLUS, NO MOTORCYCLE RIDING

That is the hardest thing about lockdown. This is the longest period that I have been off my bike in 8 years!

I think that I will go ‘postal’ if they do not lift this Movement Control Order after week 6!

 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

58 minutes ago, Enthalpic said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Force

Waste of money.  trump will never be Picard.

 

Where was it ever insinuated that Trump wants to be a fictional character? You seem to be in ‘publish or perish’ mode again...

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

1 hour ago, Enthalpic said:

Trumps presidency will be the near biggest disaster in history. Record levels of debt and deficit, even more than the bank failures - then add a bunch of corpses.

We’ll see. I don’t think I’ll take your word on that.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

1 hour ago, Enthalpic said:

Money is an artificial construct.

Fine, do without it then.

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

8 hours ago, 0R0 said:

The Trump show is not the actual man. It is a grating bullying buffoon persona meant to present him as the precise opposite of the personages of the administrative class. Opposing their sophisticated ivy league school presentation. The point of the matter is that he is making a big show of not being an elitist a$$hole. Though that is precisely how he was raised. He is playing deliberately that boor that pokes at the leaders he's supposed to work with. That is to differentiate himself and his direction from the broad "swamp" he came into

Except the presidency, rigth? Do you not consider this a problem?

Edited April 18, 2020 by Rasmus Jorgensen

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

8 minutes ago, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

Except the presidency, rigth? Do you not consider this a problem?

I don’t understand your question, Rasmus.

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

5 hours ago, ronwagn said:

All very nice little (aside from Canada), mostly cold countries with very small populations and left wing governments. They all have top down big government systems compared to ours. None of them wield much clout economically or geopolitically. 

We have a Bill of Rights, and a constitution that is actually followed to a great extent. 

Anyone can make up a list of popular countries based on anything they wish. The actual test is where people choose to live and try to emigrate to. The winner is America. 

https://goodmove.co.uk/blog/top-global-countries-to-emigrate-to/

Ron so on what basis then how are our “piddly little countries” more unhappy and all Americans are happy?? What metrics in what subjects are you measuring??

can you not see how insulting your post is??

What has land mass size got to do with anything? are people in Khazakstan Happy and a powerful nation? Does that make Canadians happier than Americans? Utter nonsense and don’t get me started on freedoms. The very countries you are attacking are the ones who gave you your first settlers and the ancestors of  the people who wrote your beloved constitution! Now where do you think they came up with most of that? Hmmm go figure 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

8 minutes ago, Rob Plant said:

Ron so on what basis then how are our “piddly little countries” more unhappy and all Americans are happy?? What metrics in what subjects are you measuring??

can you not see how insulting your post is??

What has land mass size got to do with anything? are people in Khazakstan Happy and a powerful nation? Does that make Canadians happier than Americans? Utter nonsense and don’t get me started on freedoms. The very countries you are attacking are the ones who gave you your first settlers and the ancestors of  the people who wrote your beloved constitution! Now where do you think they came up with most of that? Hmmm go figure 

Rob, I do not know what Ron is getting at here, so will need to let him explain.

What I will say, as I’ve said before, putting ‘your’ cultures values and expectations to other cultures, is usually a mistake. 

The definition of ‘happy’ is probably much different between the Scandinavian countries, European countries, Great Britain, and the States. It is comparing apples to oranges. ‘We’ generally do not like government intervention, or prefer to minimize it. Scandinavia and Europe seem to prefer a more government controlled, socialistic model. In my mind, the UK is in the midst of change and it remains to be seen what the result is after the whole Brexit issue is resolved.

Suffice it to say that a Yank might be unhappy in Sweden, while a Swede might go crazy in Wyoming...
 

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

5 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

What I can’t understand is the anger over his ‘America first’ policy...isn’t that his job? Isn’t that the job of ANY Head of State?

Whose angry??

i honestly have never seen anything anti “America first” in any UK media or any media for that matter. Nobody cares Doug, not trying to be flippant but that’s honestly how people across the pond feel.

i think it’s as you say his job 

 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

15 hours ago, UNC12345 said:

This is interesting to some extent.  I never called him an "extremist" (which carries a different meaning I think) but to say that an entire country is uninspired and lacks ambition?  That's a stretch my good man and yeah, to me that's an extreme view. 

I hope you can see the pattern that I've mentioned here....

I make some observations about the US and why it's interesting.....my entire country is "ossified" or "stultified".

I say that those views seem extreme.....you put forth I've called him an extremist and we live in bizarro world.

You guys are doing a great job of illustrating the points I've made.

My sense of humor isn't for everyone.  Sometimes I faceplant.

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

23 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

Rob, I do not know what Ron is getting at here, so will need to let him explain.

What I will say, as I’ve said before, putting ‘your’ cultures values and expectations to other cultures, is usually a mistake. 

The definition of ‘happy’ is probably much different between the Scandinavian countries, European countries, Great Britain, and the States. It is comparing apples to oranges. ‘We’ generally do not like government intervention, or prefer to minimize it. Scandinavia and Europe seem to prefer a more government controlled, socialistic model. In my mind, the UK is in the midst of change and it remains to be seen what the result is after the whole Brexit issue is resolved.

Suffice it to say that a Yank might be unhappy in Sweden, while a Swede might go crazy in Wyoming...
 

Yes exactly Douglas

it was Ron that made the statement not me

i was just asking what was he measuring and how was he measuring them to come up with his poorly thought through comment.

i believe he wasn’t measuring anything but just stating his own opinion, never having actually travelled to most of these nations he is saying are less happy than America.

hell of a thread topic youve started!! this one could run and run!

Make sure that bike of yours is in tip top condition, the last thing you need is a mechanical fault when you are released from lockdown! Look what you’ve e done to your TV and computer😂

 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

5 minutes ago, Rob Plant said:

Yes exactly Douglas

it was Ron that made the statement not me

i was just asking what was he measuring and how was he measuring them to come up with his poorly thought through comment.

i believe he wasn’t measuring anything but just stating his own opinion, never having actually travelled to most of these nations he is saying are less happy than America.

hell of a thread topic youve started!! this one could run and run!

Make sure that bike of yours is in tip top condition, the last thing you need is a mechanical fault when you are released from lockdown! Look what you’ve e done to your TV and computer😂

 

So far, it’s only electrical stuff giving up the ghost! I hope the gremlins don’t touch the bike!

Was getting concerned about the battery charge, so got up early a few days ago, checked the checkpont locations on Waze, then did a wee charging run. 

Doesn’t really count as ‘getting on the bike’, but better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Translation: Better than nothing

Speaking of weird sayings, what does the English saying, “Stone the crows” actually mean?
 

[Rob Plant + 2,756]

19 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

So far, it’s only electrical stuff giving up the ghost! I hope the gremlins don’t touch the bike!

Was getting concerned about the battery charge, so got up early a few days ago, checked the checkpont locations on Waze, then did a wee charging run. 

Doesn’t really count as ‘getting on the bike’, but better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Translation: Better than nothing

Speaking of weird sayings, what does the English saying, “Stone the crows” actually mean?
 

Not one of ours mate

its one of our other cousins the Aussies!

"Stone the crows" comes from an actual event which happened in the late 1800s, just south of Roebourne in Western Australia. A teenager who was part of the original white settlement there was becoming exasperated with the flies and the heat and in a moment of temper he picked up a stone to throw at a crow.

strange bunch of people! Never quite got over us deporting them to the other side of the world😂😂

only joking Wombat and any other Aussies!

 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

13 hours ago, Hotone said:

Were you an employee or an entrepreneur?  Did you get compensated very lucratively for your work?

Reading comprehension deficit?

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

7 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

Rob, I do not know what Ron is getting at here, so will need to let him explain.

What I will say, as I’ve said before, putting ‘your’ cultures values and expectations to other cultures, is usually a mistake. 

The definition of ‘happy’ is probably much different between the Scandinavian countries, European countries, Great Britain, and the States. It is comparing apples to oranges. ‘We’ generally do not like government intervention, or prefer to minimize it. Scandinavia and Europe seem to prefer a more government controlled, socialistic model. In my mind, the UK is in the midst of change and it remains to be seen what the result is after the whole Brexit issue is resolved.

Suffice it to say that a Yank might be unhappy in Sweden, while a Swede might go crazy in Wyoming...
 

Americans, by and large, don't even like to fill out "Happiness" questionnaires.  You want me to do what?  DILLIGAS!

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,554]

10 hours ago, Enthalpic said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Force

Waste of money.  trump will never be Picard.

 

Somehow that fits the liberal left mind, a scripted story of what life could be rather than what it is.

A construct of illusion.

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

7 hours ago, Rob Plant said:

Whose angry??

i honestly have never seen anything anti “America first” in any UK media or any media for that matter. Nobody cares Doug, not trying to be flippant but that’s honestly how people across the pond feel.

i think it’s as you say his job 

 

Well, there have been those comments in the media about nationalism whenever Trump touts the America First line.....